Sweet Potato Soup with Homemade Herb Butter Toasts

With the lowest temperature around 4c to 7c this week, it would be nice to snuggle in and enjoying a warm bowl of soup. This soup is similar to pumpkin soup. I had it in a French restaurant where the owner came from the Bresse region. The whole place is decorated with chicken that Bresse is famous for.  I like the flavour of the sweet potato with the addition of cream served with herb butter toasts. This could be a light meal for my vegetarian day or a nice entree to serve before the main meal.

Sweet Potato Soup with Homemade Herb Butter Toasts

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato

4 medium washed potatoes

1/4 of a small onion

2 cups water

1/4 cup light cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Italian parsley to sprinkle

For the herb butter

250g butter, softened

4 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

Method:

Mix the butter with the parsley till combined. Lay a piece of glad wrap onto the kitchen bench and add the butter mixture on top. Roll the butter mixture into a sausage shape and tighten the ends. Fridge until harden and slice into discs. Left over can be frozen until ready to be used.

Peel the potatoes and cut into chucks. Boil the potatoes and onion with 2 cups water until cooked. Leave cool a little.

Reserve half of the water. Blend the soup till smooth and return to the pan. Add the reserve  water bit by bit and add the cream to the soup until it has a smooth consistency. Seasoned with 

        salt and pepper. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with herb butter toasts.

 Cut 1/2 of the french stick into 3 cm thick, Place 1/2 of the butter disc on each bread. Place them

        into a hot grill until golden. (It shouldn't take too long to grill, so don't leave your grill)

Enjoy!

Red Lentils & Sweet Potatoes Dahl

I hope you love Indian food as much as I do. I always feel very excited when I smell the spice and herbs tossing in the pan. This dahl is ideal to serve with curry and rice with roti as I like to substitute some plant protein for animal protein these days. Sweet potato is low GI and turmeric is good for preventing cancer so this is a meal for anyone looking for good health.

It's long weekend of Queen's Birthday in Australia. Have a lovely weekend!

Red Lentils & Sweet Potatoes Dahl

Ingredients:
3 cups water
1 small sweet potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 tomato, diced
1/4 small onion
1/3 cup red lentils
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
salt to taste

Method:

1. Rinse and drain the lentils. 
2. Add a little oil and add the onion and turmeric. Then add water and the remaining ingredients. Simmer until the lentil and sweet potatoes are cooked.
3. When the water evaporate and the dahl starts to thicken, seasoned with salt.  Serve with roti or rice.

Agar Agar Jelly Cake with Coconut and Pandan

Chinese New Year is coming up on 19 February. This year my in-laws from Malaysia is coming to spend CNY with us making it extra special. As usual for any Chinese celebration, there will be lots of cooking and eating. Agar Agar jelly is a popular sweet you would see in any Malaysian party. It is made from sea vegetable which is a good substitute for gelatine for vegetarian.  It also helps to create many colourful and healthy dessert. It is a great last minute dessert that is very simple to prepare.

I finally find the frozen pandan leaves from Yuen's Market at Sunnybank in Brisbane. I usually use the pandan essence which is very bright green in colour and taste not as good as the real one. I normally make this dessert using coconut milk, evaporated milk and mung bean.  As I don't want to over power the taste of the pandan, I have omitted the evaporate milk here. After discovering this Asian vanilla essence, surely there will be more pandan recipes to come. If mung bean is not your thing, you can omit it as well.

Have a great Chinese New Year!

Agar Agar Jelly Cake with Coconut and Panda

Ingredients:

A:
1/4 cup split mung beans or yellow split peas
1 cup water

B:
3 pandan leaves
1 cup boiled water at room temperature

C:
20g agar agar leaves
2 litres water
1 3/4 cup sugar or more to taste
1 1/2 cup coconut cream

Method:

1. A: Cook mung beans with water till boil, turn down heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until the beans are cooked. Strain and put the bean aside.
2. B: Cut the pandan leaves into pieces. Add into the blender with water and blend till the juice is green. Strain and preserve the water and discard the leaves.
3. Place agar agar into boiling water and let it dissolves. Add sugar and stir till sugar dissolves.
4. Pour about 1/3 of the agar agar sugar mixture into a large baking tray (25cmx30cm). Keep in fridge for about 15 minutes.
5. Add coconut cream and pandan juice to the remaining agar agar sugar mixture. ( If not using pandan juice, you can add 1/4 cup evaporated milk here) Spread mung bean over the 1st layer of the cake. Then use a ladle to pour the coconut mixture into the tray.  Keep in fridge for at least 1 hour before cutting into slices. It is best to consume the jelly slices within one or two days.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Merry Christmas - Tomato & Sweet Chilli Relish

Merry Christmas, my friend!

We have just come back from a holiday in Melbourne.  It was only a four days trip but we had a good look around of the CBD and tried many Melbourne specialities food including Malaysian, Vietnamese, Japanese, American, French, chocolates and the most highlight was visiting the Queen Victoria Markets twice for the fresh fruit and gourmet food. We also did a lot of shopping from European department store to discounted outlet centres and I would have to say we hadn't done such a good shopping for a long time. It really is a gastronomic trip and we just love everywhere we go in Melbourne!

Gourmet burger has been a big hit in Melbourne, there are many burger eateries in the cities. As BBQ is one of the tradition way to celebrate Christmas and New Year in Australia, this recipe of tomato relish could give your burger another level of satisfaction than the good old tomato sauce.

Enjoy a great time with your family and friends and will see you next year!

Tomato & Sweet Chilli Relish

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 onion, finely chopped
400g ripe tomato, chopped
1/4 cup Thai sweet chilli sauce
1/4 cup raw sugar
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt

Method:
Put oil into pan and saute onion till brown, add remaining ingredients. Boil, turn down heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Homemade Cumquat Marmalade

There is this very cute 90 years old lady selling jam and homegrown fruit for the church every week.  The fruit of the jam is donated by local farmers and made by volunteers with lots of love and kindness.  Their specialities are rosella jam in March, strawberry jam and cumquat marmalade in August, mango chutney in December. The day I went to visit her, her little store was full with bottles of cumquat marmalade and she was saying delightfully, "there is cumquat everywhere!"

I bought a bottle of marmalade and 1 kg of cumquat from her.  I didn't expect there would so many seeds in cumquat so it took me a while to cut up the fruit.  But it really worth the effort because the jam is tasty (as good as the one I bought) and I am pleased that I finally make jam without using the bread machine. And now, I have jam everywhere in my fridge and pantry!

Cumquat Marmalade
(make about 5x500g bottles)

Ingredients:
1 kg cumquats
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1.25L water
6 cups raw sugar
1 tablespoon jam setta (optional)

Method:

1. Wash cumquats, drain.  Quarter cumquats with knife but not cutting all the way through. Remove seeds and cut off the hard pitt from the centre if needed.  Don't worry if you do not remove all the seeds, it would float out later. 
2. Process cumquats in a blender then combine the cumquats mixture, lemon juice and water in a large saucepan.  Stand for at least 2 hours.
3. Bring the mixture to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. Spoon out any seeds if you see them floating at the surface.
4. Add sugar to the mixture and boil for another 30 minutes. Skim scum with a metal spoon if necessary. 
5. The jam should turn thick and bubbling. Test the jam if it is set by dropping 1 tablespoon of hot jam onto a chilled plate, move it with finger after 40 seconds.  If it crinkles and thicken, its done.  If not, add 1 tablespoon jam setta and boil for another 5-10 minutes and repeat the test until the jam is set. 
6. Pour hot jam into sterilised jars, covered with transparent papers that have been dashed with lemon juice then tighten the jars with lids and rubber bands.

Adopted and modified from the cookbook "Classic Preserves Jams Chutneys Relishes" from the Australian Women's Weekly.

Overnight Oats with Strawberry (dairy free)

What would be the perfect breakfast for you? My husband and son would put their hands up and say "Bacon and Egg!" and my daughter would be happy to have French toast with a tub of yoghurt. And for me, this overnight oats with strawberry is my perfect breakfast that keep me going for at least a few hours till lunch time. It provides a good start of the day with fibre, protein, anti-oxidents and calcium....and the best thing is that it is ready to serve in a jar with only a little of work to do the night before.

Overnight oats with strawberry

Ingredients:
1 cup sweetened almond milk
6 tablespoons rolled oats
1 tablespoon chia seeds
few goji berries
4-5 fresh strawberries, halves

Method:
Pour milk into a medium size glass jar, add the rolled oats, chia seeds and goji berries. Give it a stir, then add in strawberries. Tighten the jar with a lid. Place into the fridge overnight. Add some toasted muesli and more fresh fruit if needed when serve.

Tip: I usually leave it at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving. If you want to warm it up, leave the strawberries and add it in the morning instead. You can also sprinkle more nuts and goji berries before serving to suit your taste.

Papaya Chia Seeds Smoothie and Chocolate Banana Shake (dairy free)

It is in the middle of winter and it is a bit cold to have smoothie and shake using frozen fruit.  These two drinks use fresh fruit and needless to say they are packed with goodness!  In Taiwan, papaya smoothie is a very popular drink and this is my version of a dairy free one.  It is also my first time making shake with avocado, it gives a thick shake texture and very filling as well. Raw cacao powder has more anti-oxidents than cocoa powder that you must give it a try! You are allowed to get addicted to it without guilt!

Papaya Chia Seeds Smoothie

Ingredients:
1 cup sweetened almond milk
1x 2cm thick wedge of red papaya
1 teaspoon chia seeds, soaked with 1/4 water till transparent

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend till smooth. Enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Shake

Ingredients:
1 cup sweetened almond milk
1 banana
1/4 large avocado
1 teaspoon chia seeds, soaked with 1/4 water till transparent
1 heap tablespoon raw cacao powder

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend till smooth. Enjoy!

Roasted Capsicum and Pumpkin Soup

After having a warm autumn, winter finally comes. I learnt about this soup from my son's friend, his mother was a very good cook and I enjoyed this soup a lot. The aroma of the garlic and the sweetness of the roasted capsicum enhance the flavour of this soup, making it a perfect winter warmer.  Pumpkin soup is one of the most versatile kind of soup, I have done a Thai style pumpkin soup before and now I've added this soup to my favourite soup list.

Pumpkin soup also has a very special meaning to me. During my course of chemo, my neighbour cooked me a big pot of pumpkin soup as a nice gesture of helping. From her Italian background, she put parsley into her soup and I would never forget how tasty her soup was.

I really think pumpkin can bring magic!


Roasted Capsicum and Pumpkin Soup
(serve 4)

800g pumpkin
2 medium potatoes
1/2 small onion
1 red capsicum
1 garlic gloves, sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
water

Method:

1. Peel potatoes, chop pumpkin and onion into chucks.  Place enough water to cover the vegetable in a saucepan and cook until vegetable are cooked. Leave to cool.
2. Meanwhile, cut capsicum into half.  With the cut size facing down, sprinkle oil and garlic.  Bake in a moderate oven until the skin are wrinkled, about 20 minutes. If the garlic burns, spoon it under the capsicum. 
3. Place the capsicum into a zip bag and let cool.  When it is cooled, peel off the skin from the capsicum and chop into chuck.
4. Pour the vegetable into a blender, reserve the water.  Blend all ingredients until smooth.
5. Return the puree into a saucepan and heat up the soup.  Add enough reserved water till you have a nice consistency.  Seasoned with salt and pepper.

Pumpkin and Ricotta Puffs with Avocado Green Salad

Mother's Day is one of the big promotion for retail stores and restaurants, you see the ads for gift ideas everywhere or ads for Mother's Day special at the local restaurants. We like to give kitchen appliances for my mother because she can use it to cook delicious food for us!  My husband bought me this Phillip's Air Flyer last year, although not a Mother's Day present but I just loved it!  It cooks wonderful crispy potatoes chips and chicken wings without using any oil.  It doesn't only fry food with less oil, you can also baked creamy potato gratin or pasta using its brownie pan.   It is a good kitchen helper that now sit permanently at my kitchen bench. The cooking time is shorter than a built in oven as it takes less time to heat up and the food get both sides cooked nicely.  The downside is that it only has a small cooking tray and the maximum temperature goes up to 200c.  However it's a great helper if you need an extra oven to cook up something small within a short time.

I roast the pumpkin using the Air Flyer and it takes only 12 minutes to get done.  Then I bake the puffs in the big oven.  The avocado salad goes well with the puffs, these day I just prefer something light liked this.  I'm expecting my kids to make me breakfast in bed, some raisin toast with a glass of oat milk would be nice!

Have a Happy Mother's Day!

Pumpkin and Ricotta Puffs with Avocado Green Salad
(make 8)

350g pumpkin
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
40g cashew, toasted and grounded
1 tablespoon parmesan cheese
2 tablespoon light ricotta cheese
extra 1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of chilli powder
2 sheets of puff pastry
egg wash for glazing

Avocado Green Salad:
Leafy Mixed
1/4 of a whole avocado
lemon infused olive oil
white rice vinegar

Methods:

1. Cut off the skin and seed of the pumpkin and cut into cubes.  Season with salt and oil, toss through.  Then place into the cooking tray of the Air Flyer and cook for 12 minutes at 180c.
2. Mesh the cooked pumpkin with the back of the fork, add in the cashew, parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese and season with the extra salt and chilli powder.
3. Cut the puff pastry into quarter, brush the sides with egg.  Place a heap tablespoon of pumpkin mesh on a corner, seal.  Repeat for the rest of the pastry.
4. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Bake in hot oven, 230c until it puffs up and starting to turn golden brown, turn down to 180c until the puffs turn all golden brown. 
5. Rinse the leafy mix under the sink and drain, cut the avocado into cube, dress with the olive oil and vinegar.

Potato Salad with Japanese Mayo and Pine Nuts

This is one of my new creation and I eat this as a light meal on my meatless day or serve as a side salad with burgers.  As I found that having a potato salad with just potato is too plain, by adding some greens into it adds more fibre and the pine nuts simply is a nice garnish with a bit of a crunch.  I choose to use Japanese Mayonnaise because it has a full flavour of whole egg, bears in mind though it has 80% of fat so don't over dressing it as I know it is hard not to!  My sister fed her fussy 2 years old with this salad and she just sat quietly and ate them all.

Potato Salad with Japanese Mayo and Pine Nuts

4-5 baby potatoes
a bowl of leafy mix (fancy lettuce, baby spinach leaves, rockets and beetroot leaves)
a small handful of pine nuts, toasted
Japanese Mayonnaise
salt and coarse black pepper to taste

Method:

1. Peel the skin of the potatoes (you can leave the skin if you wish) and cut into cubes.  Cook the potatoes cubes into boiling water until cooked.  If you can poke a fork into the cubes, it is ready.
2. Drain the water and leave the potatoes cool.  Rinse the leafy mix with water and drain as well.
3. Put the leafy mix and potatoes into a big bowl.  Add the pine nuts and mayo.  Seasoned with salt and coarse black pepper before serving.  Enjoy!

Almost a Vegan Chocolate Cupcake and Pink October

A little while ago I went to a friend's birthday party and tried her daughter's vegan cupcakes and vegan birthday cakes.  It looks not much difference to the other non-vegan cakes and it tastes moist and nice.  I like the glossy shine of her icing using extra virgin coconut oil which you won't get from any other kinds of oil.  I always think that vegetarian are good cook as normal restaurant may not meet their needs, and they have made their life healthy and be kind to the animals.

I search the recipes for the vegan cupcake and frosting from the internet.  I decide to use butter and milk for my frosting as I know the name of vegan cupcake may scare my family away.  The rich ganache goes well with the light moist cake, so next time when you want to make a cake but there are no eggs in the fridge, try this vegan chocolate cake.  It won't make you disappointed!

October is dedicated to bring the awareness for breast cancer, I would like to take this opportunity to ask you to do a simple thing.  Do a self breast examination and keep it as a monthly routine.  If you're over 40, take a mammogram and ultra-sound for your breasts.  If there is any suspicious lump or discharge from your nipples, seek for medical advice without hesitation.  Don't ask your husband as they just don't know!  I have been through that and it's only early detection can saved your life.  Breast cancer don't only happen to old people or a particular race!  Let us all beat the cancer and support those that are having treatment be well and healthy soon!

Please share this message with your girlfriends to bring out more awareness of breast cancer!

Vegan Chocolate Cupcake

1 1/4 cups plain flour
3/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon apple cider

For the ganache:
1 cup dark choc chips
1/4 cup evaporated milk or more if needed
2 teaspoon butter or margarine
1/2 cup icing sugar

Method:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.  Then mix the wet ingredients in another bowl.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.  Spoon the batter into cupcake cases and baked about 30 minutes in a preheat oven at 180c.
2. For the ganache: Microwave the choc chips and butter in a bowl, add the evaporated milk and icing sugar.  Stir until the frosting is well mixed, add a little bit more milk if needed to get the right consistency.  Garnish the cake with some coloured choc chips.

Source: http://www.instructables.com/id/The-BEST-chococlate-cake-ever...that-happens-to-be/
             http://www.theyummylife.com/Chocolate_Frosting

Red Bean Moon Cake with Flaky Pastry (紅豆螺絲酥皮月餅)

Last week I went to school to help out the hospitality students to understand cultural diversity.  Six of the parents participate all came from different background including Thai, Indian, German, South African, Italian and Chinese.  One of the thing we were taking about was the festival celebration, and I mentioned that lots of Chinese dessert for celebration was round as the roundness mean smooth and harmony.  The Chinese Moon Festival is coming up on 30 September and I got the idea making this flaky pastry mooncake from my mother-in-law when she posted her taro mooncake on FB.

I always have difficulty in making the swirl looking flaky pastry and I got the step-by-step instruction from Cherri, ch3rri blossoms.  I use canola oil instead of shortening as it is a healthier oil and I baked it instead of deep fry.  The other popular flavour for the mooncake include taro, green tea and lotus.  Moon cake usually has an salted duck egg yolk inside the filling, I have opted that out as I prefer it eggless.

The Moon Festival is the second biggest festival besides the Chinese New Year.  People give mooncake as a gift and everyone gather together for a family dinner on a full moon night.  A true happiness for me is to enjoy the time with my family, just as simple as that.



Red Bean Moon Cake with Flaky Pastry
(make 16)

Ingredients:

Filling:
red bean paste (store brought)

Water dough:
200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
50g canola oil
30g sugar
100g water

Oil dough:
180ml plain flour
100g canola oil

Method:

1. Roll the red bean paste into 16 golf ball sized balls.
2. For the water dough; mix all together to form a dough, rest 20 minutes.  Then divide into 4 equal portions.
3. For the oil dough; mix all together to form a soft dough, divide into 4 equal portions.
4. Flatten the water dough and place the oil dough into the middle and wrap around it.  Do not flour the bench as the dough is oily enough and will not stick to the table.
5. Roll out the dough into a long shape, fold half from the short side, then fold over to the right.  Roll out one more time.
6. Then roll into a swiss roll from the long side, cut into 4 pieces.
7. Roll each piece flat into a round shape, about the size of the dumping pastry.  Place a piece of red bean paste into the middle, wrap around to form a ball and seal the bottom.  Repeat for the rest of the dough.
8. Preheat oven at 170c. Place the mooncake sealed size down onto the paper lined baking tray(s), bake 25 mins or until brown.

Source: http://ch3rri-blossoms.blogspot.com.au/2009/12/flaky-taro-pastry.html

water dough and oil dough

Flatten water dough and oil dough on top

Oil dough wrapped inide of the water dough

1st time roll out 

roll half from long side

roll half to the right

2nd time roll out

cut into 4 pieces

Roll flat and fill with filling

ready to bake! 

Thai Style Pumpkin Soup

There is no other time I would eat pumpkin so often except in winter!  I bake it with vegetable in roast, putting it as topping for pizza or as a filling for tart...and my favourite is pumpkin soup!  There are many recipes for different pumpkin soup putting in bacon, curry or turmeric powder, adding sweet potato etc.  And this Thai Style is my new favourite.  I had this recipe last year from a magazine and finally got the chance to make it.  The coconut milk makes such a difference and I love the spice from the curry paste.  The original recipe require blending pesto with coriander roots, lemon zest and juice but I have omitted this process by adding coriander powder instead.  That's the way to do it when you don't want to get out to the garden on a cold night to pick up the coriander root!

Thai Style Pumpkin Soup
(serve 2-4)

1 cereal bowl of cut pumpkin
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tsp ginger, finely chopped
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp Thai red curry paste (put less if you don't want it too spicy)
1 cup water
1/2 cup lite coconut milk
1 tbsp lemon juice
coriander to garnish

Method:

1. Heat a little oil in the saucepan, saute onion and stir for a minute.  Add ginger, coriander powder and curry paste, stir through.  
2. Add in pumpkin and water, reduce heat and let it simmer till pumpkin is cooked.  Cool slightly.
3. Blend the pumpkin mixture till smooth in a blender.  Return to pan and add coconut milk and lemon juice then warm through.  Seasoned with salt and garnish with coriander leaves.  

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Winter finally arrived! My kids love tin soup as it is very convenience to heat up some soup for a quick meal.  It is actually not that hard to make homemade soup such as pumpkin soup and pea and ham soup as you can make a big pot and freeze the leftover for later for those who have a busy life.  Broccoli is my kids favourite vegetable and it has lots of nutrient from the little trees.  This soup is great for all ages from toddlers to growing kids and elder people.  And if you brought too much broccoli and the florets starts to turn yellow, this is best ideas to use up the vegetable into soup!  I also learned from a Low GI cookbook that baby potatoes are low GI and I have been using baby washed baby potatoes for my cooking ever since.

Cream of Broccoli Soup
(serve 2-4)

1 small broccoli
3-4 small washed baby potatoes
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon of grated cheese
1 tablespoon evaporated milk
1/2 cup or more milk
salt and pepper

Method:

1. Peel potatoes and cut into small pieces.  Cover with 1 cup water with a little salt and boil until potatoes are cooked.
2. Cut the florets from the broccoli, put the broccoli and onion with the potatoes when the potatoes started to soften and cook till both vegetable are well cooked.  Reserve 1/2 of the water and blend the vegetable into the blender till thick and smooth.
3. Return the vegetable mixture into the pan, add the onion, 1/2 cup milk and the remaining reserved water to thinning the soup.  Add a bit more of milk and water if needed.
4. Let the soup simmer for a few minutes, add the cheese and evaporated milk to enhance the flavour and seasoned with salt and pepper. Garnish with chives if you wish.

Corn Chowder, Sun-dried Tomato & Cashews Dip

After having a few hot days, the weather has cooled down and my daughter asks me to make her some soup.  It is only about 20 celsius with a bit of rain and wind but she puts on her tracksuit and keep complaining how COLD it is!  After all these Christmas party food, we need something light like this to help cleansing our system. 

When I went to one of the Christmas party, one of the mum brought in some homemade dip. She had been very generous telling me what she put in.  So I went home and tried to be a copy cat.  She said the dip could also be a salad dressing by adding some lemon juice to it.

The post man knocks on our door and I receive two Christmas parcels the other day, not to mention the greeting cards I have received.  I have to get myself writing some Christmas cards, getting the shopping done, etc. as Christmas is not far away.  I have got a whole turkey and a leg of ham for our Christmas lunch.  I haven't cooked anything that BIG before, and they both need the oven.  I may have to get up early to get these done so they'll be ready on time.  Let's hope there is no kitchen disaster on Christmas Day as there is no take-away open!

Corn Chowder
(serve 4)

1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
3 small new potatoes, peeled and chopped
kernels from 2 ears of sweet corn
peas (optional)
4 cups water
1 cup low-fat milk
salt and pepper

Method:

1. Pan fried onion with a little of oil in the saucepan.  Add the potatoes and carrot and continue to fry for a minute.  Add the water, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Add the kernels and milk to the saucepan and continue to simmer until potatoes are cooked.  Transfer the soup to the food processor or blender and process until smooth. 
3. Return the soup to the saucepan, add some peas, season with salt and pepper.  If it's not thick and smooth enough, you can thicken it with a teaspoon of cornflour mixed with a tablespoon of water.

Sun-dried Tomato & Cashews Dip


1/2 cup salted cashews
1/2 capsicum, roughly chopped
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
lemon juice
salt to taste
olive oil

Blend the cashews with capsicum, tomatoes and olive oil (I use the oil from the bottle of the tomatoes) until smooth, add in some lemon juice and salt.  Serve with crackers.

Thanks for visiting and supporting my blog. 

Wishing you a 


Merry Christmas and Have a Happy New Year!

Fresh Fruit Salad and Strawberry Smoothie

These fruit salad and smoothie are my favourite for breakfast or snack.  The strawberry season is nearly over so I have been adding blueberry and mango into my fruit salad instead.  By having a glass of smoothies in the morning, it gives me full energy to start the day.  It has been over a month since I have started going to the gym.  I've got my nice legs back and my bum is getting shaped.  But I have put on weight!  My trainer told me that muscle actually weight 5 time more than fat.  Some of my friends started training earlier than me, they all told me that they didn't lose weight but I could see that their figure were toned.  

October is the month for fundraising for breast cancer research.  I'm holding a pink luncheon at my restaurant for the parents at my kids class.  I am busily asking for donations for door prizes and getting people to come along.  The research indicates that 1 in 8 women are affected by breast cancer and early detection and regular examinations help increase survival rate.  For more information on Pink Ribbon Day, please click here.  You may know someone suffer from this terrible disease.  Maybe you would like to hold a fund raising and hopefully this can help to find a cure!

  

Fresh Fruit Salad


Ingredients:
Apple, orange, kiwi fruit, strawberries, passionfruit pulp (or lemon juice)

Cut all fruit except passionfruit into cube, then drizzle passionfruit pulp and stir through.  Serve with yoghurt and toasted muesli.

Strawberry Smoothie
(make 1 tall glass or 2 small glasses)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup organic milk
1-2 tablespoon organic yoghurt with wildberry
1 tablespoon honey
4-5 medium strawberries, hulled

Place all ingredients into the blender and blend for 15 seconds.  Pour into glass and serve straight away.


  

Apple and Celery Salad

This salad is also called Waldorf salad as it is named after the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.  I couldn't remember when was the first time I had this salad but I knew I didn't have it before migrating to Australia.  The only salad I had back then was potato salad and we still had that every time when we had a family BBQ.  You won't be surprise seeing that older Chinese won't touch any raw salad as they like their vegetable cooked.  My dad loves salad, considering him having his first raw salad at 50.  One time I was reading the book, Mao's Last Dancer and I couldn't stop laughing when the author mentioned that he was invited to have dinner with some western friends after coming to the US for dancing.  As he couldn't read English, for good manner sake, he only ordered the cheapest food on the menu and that was a salad.  He had never had salad before and it was not a filling meal for a young man.  Imagine going to a foreign place and you don't know the language, we can only use sign language and pictures to express ourselves.  The last time when I went to Japan, we went to a noodle house for dinner.  Even though I brought a traveller dictionary with me, I had to point to the picture of the menu and tried to tell the waitress what we wanted.  We ended up having 3 noodle soups for 4 people so we had to order one more later on.  I didn't think I got the noodle I wanted but I had to eat what I'd got by seeing the hopeless face of the waitress not understanding me.  Anyway, it was a nice dinner after all!  Have you got any interesting travelling story due to language barrier?
    
Apple and Celery Salad


1 apple
1 stalk of celery
1 tablespoon sultanas
a handful of walnut
few lettuce leaf
2 heap tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Cut apple and celery into small cubes.  Squeeze some lemon juice over the apple to prevent discolour.  Add in sultanas, mayonnaise and salt to the salad.  Spoon salad over the plate with the lettuce base, then sprinkle some chopped walnut over the top.

Tips:  Use a vegetable peeler to peel off the tough bits from the celery.

Spring Salad

We all look for a fresh start for Spring, I make this salad using snow pea sprouts, pepitas, violet flowers and mandarin which is light and crispy to have for the warmer weather.

I have recently join the gym and starting a training program.  First my trainer measures all my "FAT" everywhere in my body and then he asks if I used to have nice legs.  Huh!  Honestly I'm not looking for losing weight, I wouldn't mind losing 2 kg and tone up a bit.  What I really want is to improve my overall fitness after a year long battling with illness.  Then he shows me the food chart of what I should be eating such as low GI, low fat, low sugar, plenty of greens and protein etc. I think he will be shocked reading my blog with all these cake and dessert recipes!  So from now on, I'm working on fitness food as I don't want to waste the effort on the workout.  I should co-operate with him and see if he can bring me back my "nice legs" and get rip of my muffin top.  Hahaha!

At the moment, I go to the gym 3 days a week for the work-out.  Once a week I go the yoga/pilates class which I enjoy a lot.  You get to stretch the muscle and joins that you don't use much.  My trainer doesn't allow me to go to other classes such as Zumba until I'm fitter.  On my free day, I may do extra walking or just have a rest.  My figure may not have changed much yet but I'm already feeling good for myself.  I keep asking myself: Why didn't I do that earlier?

I'm going to work on salad in September.  The best food to have after workout is to have a salad and plenty of water!

One of my friend from Hong Kong mentions that it will be easier for her if my blog is written in Chinese.  Instead of having a new blog, I'm going to add Chinese to the recipes starting from blog number 1, which is Apple & Cinnamon Muffins.  Hopefully this will attract more Chinese readers that are interested in western cooking.  Because I haven't written Chinese for so long, please excuse my slow progress.

Spring Salad


Ingredients:
Lettuce
red cabbage (sliced)
onion (sliced)
snow pea sprouts
pepitas
mandarin (skin and seed removed)
violets flower

Dressing:
Apple Cider Vinegar
2-3 Tbs low-fat mayonnaise
1 Tbs tomato sauce
1 Tbs low-fat Dijonnaise

Method:
Toss the lettuce, cabbage and onion in a bowl, add the sprouts and drizzle with some vinegar.  Mix the mayanise, tomato sauce and Dijon mayanisie and drizzle over the top.  Arrange the mandarin, flowers and sprinkle some pepitas over the top.       

Strawberry and Pecan Salad

When I think of strawberry, I always associate it to something sweet such as pancake, tart or shortcake.  Then I saw other bloggers making strawberry salad.  So I thought if you can put tomato into salad, strawberry should work as good as that!  I like this salad as it has the crisp of the lettuce, sweet and sour from the strawberry and tomato and the crunch from the pecan.  It is a good accompany to my seafood quiche.  

Strawberry and Pecan Salad

Ingredients:

strawberry

cherry tomato

lettuce

baby spinach leaves

cucumber

pecan nuts

apple cider vinegar

balsamic glaze

Method:

Wash and sliced the vegetables and fruit, chopped the pecan nuts.  Pour in the apple cider vinegar and then some balsamic glaze over the salad.  

Seafood Quiche

Baked Vegetable Macaroni in Three Cheeses

Besides pizza, pasta is my ABC kids (Australian Born Chinese) number one dish.  They are delighted when pasta is served for dinner and always ask for second helping.  I usually make chicken macaroni with cheese but this time I am trying a vegetarian version by adding in more greens and colours.  There is no complain of too much vegetable and there is no left-over.  Nice!
    
Baked Vegetable Macaroni in Three Cheeses


Ingredients:
1 cup macaroni
1 cup brocoli florets
1/2 of a medium capsicum, cut into chucks
1 small carrot, cut into dice
1 small onion, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup baby peas
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup thickened cream
2 1/2 cups of water
2 teaspoons of corn flour mixed with 1tablespoon of water
salt and pepper
cheddar cheese
mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon of bread crumb
olive oil

Method:

1. Pour water in a pot, salt and oil lightly, and cover to boil.  Add the macaroni into the boiling water and stir to separate, turn off the heat and cover for 10-15 minutes or until al dente.  Drain in a colander.
2. Heat oil in a saucepan, add in garlic and onion, stir for a minute until the onion is starting to soften.  Then add in the rest of the vegetable except peas, stir for a minutes and then add the water.  Let it simmers until the vegetable is half cooked, add the peas and pour in the evaporated milk and cream.  Thicken the sauce with the cornflour mixture and season it with salt and pepper.
3. Lay the macaroni into a baking pan, pour the sauce over.  Then sprinkle a handful each of the three kinds of cheese and bread crumb.  Drizzle the top with 1 tablespoon of extra olive oil.  
4. Bake the macaroni in a preheat 180c oven for 20 minutes then cover the pan with the lid or foil, bake for a further 10-15 minutes until the cheese melted and the top is browned.